LYCOS RETRIEVER 
The Purchase: Consumers
built 621 days ago
The purchase funnel has been dead a long time. Some consumers ask a friend and buy. Others shop for weeks, months, feverishly. The traditional funnel construct only works in the old Soviet Union.
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In DoubleClick's Search Before the Purchase Study, for example, findings showed consumers search on generic or category keywords early in the purchase process. Although these keywords typically do not directly convert well and often carry much higher CPC prices than lower volume branded or product terms, the traffic and impressions they generate can pay big dividends as consumers get closer to making a purchase decision. After clicking a search ad displayed for a category keyword, searchers are very likely to later perform another search for a brand or product name.
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The implications of this study challenge a widely held assumption encoded in the purchase funnel, that most consumers begin the product search process by using a generic search term (e.g. “plasma TV”) and then later refine their search activity to product-specific terms (e.g. “Sony Plasma KE-42M1″). It ... suggests that the use of generic search terms will invariably open consumers up to the possibility of being tempted by new brands and products that were not in their original consideration set.
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InciteMedia, located near Zurich, is a media company that successfully uses its custom content and 'infotainment-based' programming along with its dynamic digital asset and content management technology to influence the purchase decisions of active consumers. The programming agility is achieved through a proprietary multi-channel communication based content delivery system that is able to deliver and manage content across a number of areas. For example, InciteMedia can mange different content to and from screens, mobile phones and other similar technologies.
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Whatever the reasons, search engines are impacting the purchase decisions of consumers. Advertisers can capitalize on this by ensuring their full portfolio of products is well represented in search results so that consumers can find what they seek and perhaps get the last minute 'endorsement' they desire.
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Interestingly, the prevalence of the paths differ across types of purchases. Long plus long and winding is the prevalent purchase path for auto, finance, and technology purchases. While retail goods range between is mostly a long purchase and consumer packaged goods (CPG) purchases are quick.
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